YouTube Video Optimization Tips

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Creating great content in your video description coupled with links to relevant pages on your website can help increase organic search traffic.

Additionally, great content in the description will also help to generate good views of your video and increase traffic to other videos on your channel. Make sure your content is engaging, entertaining and informative, and most importantly, shareable.

Not all of the traffic to your video will come from YouTube. The goal is for visitors to find your video in the search engine results and click on it. The better the content, the more likely it will appear in the results. Staying on top of trends related to your destination while creating your video is another strategy.

Tagging and Titles

Tagging is essential to getting views of your video. Titles and tags are a contributing factor to visitors discovering your video. Be sure to include brand keywords in your tagging and avoid irrelevant tags without your destination.

Google Trends is an important tool to discover relevant non-branded keywords to drive traffic to your video.

Watch Time

YouTube values "watch time," a video's version of bounce rate; and how long a viewer stays to watch your video. Writing useful descriptions can also encourage visitors to read the content while still watching the video.

Closed-Captioning

Tags and titles play a role in search engine indexing, but transcribing and uploading closed-caption files for your videos also helps as an optimization technique. Transcribed videos tend to rank higher since they allow access to information in multiple formats.

Call to Action

Don't forget a call to action in the first paragraph of your content. Don't wait until the end. Add links, phone numbers, email address.

Playlist URLs

Videos that are part of a playlist can improve watch time. At the end of each playlist video, YouTube automatically plays the next video in the list. This will help increase your time-on-page and time-on-site metrics.

Simpleview SEM clients should notify their SEM Analyst to optimize their YouTube videos.

Author: Kristen Lodge

As an SEO Analyst, Kristen Lodge optimizes, analyzes, and recommends ways for clients to increase search engine rankings and drive organic traffic. Before Simpleview, Kristen formerly worked as a Marketing Director, Columnist & Reporter, and Business Analyst for in Ski Towns across the country.

For more information about strategy and development for your Web projects, e-mail us at info@simpleviewinc.com or call our offices at (520) 575-1151.